Cam Dunlap here with some helpful insight in this here Awesomely blog post.
So, a newer investor recently asked me to candidly share the number of deals I get from cold-calling motivated sellers as an acquisitions channel.
She was surprised to hear that my cold call numbers these days are relatively low, at only ~2% of my deals.
Now, cold calling is still a potent channel for getting leads. But! I think it’s less effective primarily due to a phenomenon I’m seeing in the marketplace: I’m calling it cold call fatigue.
Here’s why…
As this acquisition strategy has caught on and trended in real estate investing circles, the number of cold calls that property owners get is off-putting, as opposed to being inviting and with novel experience.
Much like when you get an advertisement once or twice a month in your inbox versus 10, 20, or 50 a day. You get fatigued when you receive too much of any advertising… even if it’s one of the best marketing pieces out there.
That’s what I’m seeing with cold calling at a high level. Let’s dive into this topic a little deeper…
Cold call fatigue explained
So the percentage of sales generated from cold calls is, of course, a moving target. It’s kinda hard to nail it down.
Why?
Because the market is always changing. There are more foreclosures every day. Lingering inflation and the price of oil are causes for concern. Interest rates are super high.
But, like I said, mine is in the 2% range.
Look, real estate, like any other business, is a numbers game. A very simple rule of thumb is if we want to buy cheap, we need to make low offers. If we’re going to make a lot of low offers, we better expect to get a lot of them rejected, and then we follow up on those who say no.
So, because we expect to be rejected so much, we must make a lot of offers. And cold calling is one way to reach a seller.
Problem is, I think there’s a certain amount of call fatigue going on out there, where sellers are a little worn out from all the calls.
Timing is everything… this is interesting: 6 minutes ago, I got a silenced call.
See, there’s an iPhone function now that lets you send an unrecognized phone call right to voicemail. Your phone won’t even ring, but you will get a notification — assuming you have the notifications turned on.
And that means, it’s become a tad bit easier for folks to basically ignore your call. Many people think, “If I don’t recognize the number, I don’t answer it. If it’s important, they’ll leave a voicemail.”
So, leave a voicemail!
Here’s why…
What I’ve noticed when I have this function turned on is that only about 1 in 10–20 of those silenced calls actually leave a voicemail.
If you leave voicemails and the other investors don’t… you’re getting an edge.
And I can tell you that silencing calls is a thing that people are aware of. All they have to do is go to Settings, and under “Phone” is the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature.
A lot of your sellers are going to use that. But, when you or your VA are making these calls, leave a message. (Also, I don’t recommend using a robocall tool, FYI.)
The callers that don’t leave messages are the ones who sellers can easily verify as junk calls. Whereas if there’s a message, they’re going to listen. Now, they may or may not be interested, but at least they’re going to hear your message.
There you have it…
That’s a little bit of insight into why I believe cold calls can still be useful, but keeping in mind cold call fatigue is definitely a thing that’s impacting the low percentage of leads and deals from cold-calling.